Killing Latest Blot On Logan Square Block

Just a year ago, concerned residents banded together to successfully persuade a Housing Court judge to shut down a Logan Square apartment building accused of rampant building code violations.

But this week, a murder in front of that same building underscored the group's ongoing efforts to force what they consider a problem landlord to improve the property.

Three people were charged with killing a resident of the block Wednesday, a few hours after they allegedly shot him in front of the three-story, brick apartment building at 2101-09 N. Hamlin Ave.

Police said one of the alleged offenders was a resident of the building, which community activists said had only recently been reoccupied in the wake of their efforts to have it cleaned up of gang elements last year.

Concerned about the alleged drug dealing, gang activity and poor living conditions in the building, neighborhood residents banded together in November 1997 to force the owner, Juan Fragoso, to evict a group of troublesome tenants and deal with broken windows, damaged walls and mounds of trash.

But Joyce Siragusa, a Community Alternative Policing Strategies beat coordinator, said that in light of Wednesday's murder, the exercise seems to have been futile.

"I feel like we've taken a step backwards a whole year. It was a hard fight, because we literally had to go to every city department to have them close the building," Siragusa said Thursday. "They fought a hard battle last year, and they thought they'd won."

Siragusa said the Housing Court decree that twice required Fragoso to shutter the structure in 1998 was temporary. Last April, Fragoso was allowed to rent apartments in the building. By late February, Siragusa said neighbors began to complain that gang members had taken over again.

Renewed efforts to combat the rise in criminal activity had already begun on several fronts in the days before Edward Ramos, 25, who lived across the street from the building, was killed Wednesday.

On Monday, Siragusa said she presented police with reports of renewed gang and drug activity around the building, seeking this time to chase after Fragoso under a pilot program in the police district that seeks to tie landlords to criminal activity in their buildings.

Aware of the mounting crime problem, Grand Central District Cmdr. Thomas Walton said tactical patrols were stepped up in mid-April.

And Grand Central District Patrol Officer David Franco, who coordinates the district's efforts at targeting problem properties, said the apartments had just been added to a list of troublesome buildings Tuesday that were marked for city inspection.

He said there were more than a hundred abandoned or otherwise questionable buildings in the Grand Central and Austin Districts alone, the only two districts operating under the Enhanced Code Enforcement Program, which is less than a month old.

The program stations a city corporation counsel in the Austin and Grand Central police districts to streamline coordination between police, who handle the complaints and who often have intimate knowledge of the properties involved, and city officials.

Jennifer Hoyle, spokeswoman for the city's Law Department, said her office knew of the complaints about the property and had initiated an investigation last week to determine if criminal activity around the 2100 block of North Hamlin could be tied to Fragoso's building.

"We had a number of arrests on that corner, in that building," said Grand Central Area Deputy Chief Thomas Byrnes. "We've been working on that beat pretty hard, all in the last few weeks," he added.

Walton said 18 arrests have been made in a three-block area surrounding the building in the last five months, with four arrests made in the building since February, including an arrest on assault charges for the same 15-year-old boy police charged as the shooter in Ramos' killing.

"You have to tie it into the building," said Walton. "The landlord knew or should have known that the building was part of the offenses being committed here."